Changing global working environments
The aim of the project is to analyze the relationship between digital technology, gender and emotions in three different working environments
Global workplaces in transition: The history of technology, gender and emotions since the 1960s
Cooperation partner in Graz: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christiane Berth, Institute of History
Junior Fellow: Nina Jahrbacher
Incoming Senior Fellow: Prof. Dr. Martina Heßler, TU Darmstadt, Prof. Suzanne Moon, PhD, University of Oklahoma
Incoming Junior Fellows: tba
Period: 2022-2024
Symposium: expected June 2024
Content:
The early 21st century saw the beginning of a lively ‒ often quite emotional debate ‒ about the future of work. For decades, digital technology has shaped workplaces around the globe and has repeatedly triggered fears of job losses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of digital technology reached new heights and with it the tendency to make work more flexible and remove boundaries.
This research project examines the change in global working environments from a historical perspective. It analyses how the relationship between digital technology, gender relations and emotions has changed in various fields of work, including office work, industrial manufacturing and agricultural production. Such a comparative view of developments in Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America enables statements to be made about different timelines, global inequality in access to technology and the diverse formation of gender roles.
The fellows work on three central questions:
- What emotional reactions did the introduction of digital technology evoke? What cultural differences existed?
- How did emotional debates affect technology use in the workplace?
- How did the introduction of digital technology affect gender relations in the workplace?
Project activities so far:
- Lecture by Helen Glew, 24.1.2024 "Unchartered waters: the end of the typing pool, the desktop computer revolution and women’s office work in 1980s and 1990s Britain", Seminar, Contemporary British History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, https://www.history.ac.uk/events/unchartered-waters-end-typing-pool-desktop-computer-revolution-and-womens-office-work-0
- Panel at Österreichischen Zeitgeschichtetag 2024: https://zeitgeschichtetag-2024.uni-graz.at/de/ , 11.4.2024
Panel 5:
Computerisation – an (in)visible turning point? Uncertainties, insecurities, and emotions since the 1970s.
Chair: Sarah Knoll
This panel aims to contribute to the question of the impact of computerisation. It approaches the issue via three case studies: the impact of computerisation on a specific workplace (the ÖBB in Austria); the reactions to the end of the typing pool in a range of workplaces (in Britain and North America); and the understanding and handling of (computer) errors in the 1970s and 1980s. Using technological, gender and emotional perspectives, it will show which uncertainties and insecurities shaped the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and which (in)visible turning points can be detected.
At the same time, the panel wants to pick up current debates, which have recurred since the 19th century and before. Although debates about machine-human interaction and the fear of being made obsolete because of workplace technology started a long time ago, the papers seek to offer a new perspective in light of the new developments in AI. Therefore, the structure of the panel will pick up those debates, starting with workplace case studies in the 1970/80s and then the 1980/90s. It closes with an overview about the effects of computerisation, which occurred during these decades, through the case study of machine errors and their induced emotions.
Consequently, the panel will address the multiplicity of turning points and explain the importance of underlining continuities, especially in the case of uncertainties and insecurities in relation to computer technologies in the second half of the 20th century.- Auf dem Gleis der Innovation: Die ÖBB-Verwaltung im Zeitalter der EDV (1969-1991) by Nina Jahrbacher
- Unchartered waters: anxiety, the end of the typing pool and the advent of the personal desktop computer by Helen Glew
- Informations-Chernobyl? Neue Unsicherheit, fehlerhafte Software und die Etablierung einer neuen Fehlerkultur im letzten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts by Martina Heßler
Symposia, 11-13. June 2024
June 11 & 13: Discussing the previously submitted papers and the publication
June 12: Presentations
Detailed program will follow
Project applications:
- Christiane Berth: The Computerized Office: Gender and Technology, 1980-2000. application for FWF-Project
- Monika Arnez (Senior Fellow): Elevating excellence in drones for environmental monitoring: sensory synergies, gender dynamics and enhanced fieldwork methods (SENSDRONE), application for a Twinning project bei Horizon Europe